Star Wars: Shadow War

Once the heroes are in hyperspace and Galak’s severed arm is stable, their mysterious Jedi ally tells the, her story:

“My name is Ahsoka Tano and I know you have little reason to trust me. The Jedi are dead, and the Empire is everywhere. I’m here to tell to you that you’re wrong. Given time a new hope will rise, and Palpatine and Vadar will fall. I’m here to make sure that happens when the time is right.

“I felt you on Sel Zonn Station when tracking a smuggler by the name of Mayam. I could sense the Force around you, almost as if you were a fulcrum of energy. I saw you assist Mayam, knew that the Living Force was at work, and decided to provide what assistance I could.

“After Dac, I lost you briefly and had to trust the Force to guide me back to you and arrived on Cato Neimoidia just just hours ago. The planet’s change a lot since I was last here. It’s also the burial ground of a very special friend of mine…”

She pauses for a moment as if giving a mourning prayer.

“What did Mayam give you? I’ve been tracking her from Coruscant since she first broke into the Imperial Archives. What did she steal?"

The heroes tells their own story since they all meet above Dac and, feeling the Force guide their actions, hand over a datapad with the file they pulled from Reme.

After reading through the document, Ahsoka looks grim. “I have no idea what to make of this. I think you need to contact this Senator Val. I’ve heard of her before, and I can assure you she is no friend of the Empire or Palpatine. But before you do that, I would like to make you an offer."

She tells them that though she left the Jedi Order shortly before the end of the Clone Wars, she is very much loyal to its ideals and the Republic. She has been working on building a network of likeminded individuals to help pave the way for the rebirth of the Jedi and the Republic when the new hope emerges.

Her group is known as the Jedi Shadows after an ancient Jedi sect that fought the Dark Side by skulking in the shadows to preserve the light. She has also teamed up with the Antarian Rangers, a group of non-Force sensitive individuals who, during the time of the Republic, used their resources to help and protect the Jedi whenever possible. Like the few Jedi remaining, the Antarian Rangers have been hunted to near extinction.

Ahsoka introduces the heroes to Koth Kre’fey, an aging Bothan who is the head of the Antarian Rangers in the Corellia system. They explain offer to shelter the heroes while the Empire’s interest in them dies down. Ashoka also offers to train any who are interested in the ways of the Jedi.

When the heroes show Ahsoka the lightsaber taken from Igren Demos, she falls into reverently silent and delicately cradles the hilt. In a soft voice, she explains that its the blade of Jedi Master Plo Kloon, the member of the last Jedi Council and the one who found and took her into the Order. She believes it was the will of the Force that they find Master Plo’s blade, and explains that they should wield it with honor and pride.

A few days later, through channels and contacts supplied by the Antarian Rangers, the heroes reach out to Senator Lyn Val, who agrees to meet with them on Corellia in four weeks time.

Finally alone in their rooms, the heroes take the time to decrypt the file given to them by Six Six. What they find is evidence of Igren Demos communicating with someone near the Unknown Region by hacking through an Imperial relay station. While they can’t determine who Igren was communicating, the last communique includes the heroes names the gave to Darga and their physical descriptions.

The following morning, the group approach Darga with this information in hopes of leveraging it to get they hyperdrive parts. Darga immediately summons Igren who prompt denies any wrong doing, explaining that as Darga’s majordomo, it is his responsibility to communicate with many individuals, most of which require a great deal of discretion. Darga agrees with his majordomo and dismisses the heroes with an air of displeasure about him.

When the heroes turn to leave, the court is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a group of obviously dangerous people. The delegation consists of three tough-looking Humans, a Rodian with a large blaster rifle, a black-furred Wookiee, and a scarred Zabrak leading two Twi’lek slaves by their collars. The audience chamber falls silent immediately, and its apparent that Darga is less than pleased to see them. Taking up space in the middle of the chamber, the group glare at everyone in the room.

Darga asks what they are doing here, and the Zabrak steps forward and sets on the floor before saying in heavily accented Basic, “The slaves you have been selling us are worthless, Darga! They have been dying before we can even get them to market. They are used up—second-rate! I want my credits back for the last four shipments!”

Darga lets out a low, rumbling laugh that sounds sinister even for the gluttonous Hutt. He rolls his eyes toward the heroes, uttering, “See what ungrateful business partners I have?” and then tells the Zabrak that his slaves were good and its not his fault that the Iron Ring can’t take care of their slaves. Galak steps forward to defend Darga, which gets the approval of the Hutt. As Keth steps forward to use mind trick on the leader to tell him to appologize to Darga and accept the deal as is, Tav and Dorn spot a Twi’lek slave poisoning a drink meant for Darga. Tav warns Darga and which causes the Zabrak to immediately retract his demands before making a hasty retreat.

Once the slavers are gone, Darga announces he will make his decision tomorrow about the hyperdrive parts.

The next morning as their heroes are making their way back from breakfast, they hear whispers amongst those they pass that the Imperials have arrived. Worried that they have been discovered and that they might be betrayed by Darga, the heroes make their way to the court and take positions behind the crowd.

Standing before Darga’s throne is a striking blonde woman and two older men who look strikingly similar to each other if it weren’t for separate scars and haircuts. The two men are each carrying identical blaster carbines and have the air about them as if they are seasoned military.

The woman introduces herself as Lt. Namada and inquires if Darga has encountered anyone matching the heroes descriptions. She explains that they are wanted for industrial sabotage and wanton destruction of Imperial property on Dac. Darga denies seeing the heroes and tells Lt. Namada that he will contact her if he does come across them. She thanks the abut for his time and leaves only as a discipline officer could. As Lt. Namada passes their concealed spot within Darga courtiers, the heroes detect that she is Force sensitive. The odd thing is that don’t sense it as much as smell it.

The following morning Darga tells the heroes that he will sell the heroes the hyperdrive parts for 1,000 credits and an agreement that the will work with each in the future if the need arises. The heroes agree and make arrangements to get the parts.

Six Six escorts the heroes to the hyperdrive parts waiting for them on a repulsorsled at the back entrance to Darga’s compound. As the heroes walk through the labrynth of hallways, Dorn reaches out with the Force to see where Lt. Namada is and if they should expect any problems with her. He finds her piloting a shuttle with her two escorts, both now dressed in stormtrooper armor. As he peers at the through the Force, he feels through the Force that the troopers are clones and not only are they clones, but they look exactly like Zaphod!

Exiting the compound, the heroes find themselves in a small back alley courtyard with the repulsorsled and hyperdrive parts awaiting them. No sooner do they all enter the alley, but a sycophantic voice says, “I always knew you were up to no good, Six Six.” Igren Demos then steps out from behind a nearby wall.

“I don’t know how you did it, but you somehow managed to charm that idiot Darga into giving you what you want. But I’m afraid, we can’t allow that.” Igren slips his hand into this sleeve and pulls out a lightsaber, as he ignites the blue blade a huge, cloaked figure steps out of the shadows behind him.

The newcomer slips off his robes to reveal a dark brown, almost black, furred wookiee, his long fur spun into dreadlocks in many places. The wookiee issues a primal, toothy growl that seems to rumble to the depths of your body and soul. Red lightsabers ignite in each of his hands.

With a blood curdling roar the wookiee shudders with rage and advances on the heroes. Galak immediately lets loose with a Force slam, blowing their two opponents to the ground and obviously injuring the Neimodian severely. Keth follows up with a quick blaster bolt to Igren, finishing of the majordomo without incident. The Wookiee on the other hand looks barely phased.

Dorn begins to reach out with the Force to slam the Wookiee with debris in the alley, but switches tactics when he senses a light side Force aura from Igren’s lightsaber. The shock of the Dark side distracts him however and he fails to call the lightsaber to his hand.

The Wookiee stands up and throws one of lightsabers at Galak, narrowly missing him, though the blade does fly back to the Wookiee’s hand. Galak replies with another Force slam, and while it does take the Wookiee to the ground again it does seem to do much damage. The others fire a few shots at their opponent but all are batted away with casual flicks of a lightsaber. The Wookiee retaliates with a Force slam of his own sending everyone to the ground.

The Wookiee then steps forward and swings his blade at Galak, neatly separating the Human’s arm from his shoulder. It’s then the heroes realize that, though they have given the Wookiee a few bruises to worry about, they are probably out matched and make a break for the repulsorsled.

As they speed away from the alley, Galak reaches out a pulls both Igren’s lightsaber and his own arm to him with the Force. Tav takes a momen, aims through the sight of his trusty Longbarrel rifle and squeezes off the most beautiful shot of his life, nailing the Wookiee at center mass and sending him back to the ground for a third time. Amazing, their foe stands up shakily, looks at their departing sled for a moment before using the Force to make a hasty retreat across the rooftops.

Taking no chances, the heroes put all possible speed into their flight and arrive at the Errant Twilight without pursuit or further incident. To their surprise they find the Togruta Jedi from Sel Zonna station awaiting them at the ship. She greets them and urges them to board the ship, so they can get to the safety of space and look after Galak before repairing the ship. She tells them she explain everything once they are safely in orbit.

Though Raden’s thugs and droids put up of fight, the heroes manage to take them down with only a little trouble. After few rough words and some not-so-subtle threats, Warrick Raden acquiesces to the heroes demands and takes them to Darga the Hutt’s secret compound.

Raven takes them on a 30-minute ride through the city, weaving in and out of streets and ruined buildings, that the heroes aren’t 100% positive that the know where they are any more. As they approach Darga’s palace, they see that it is cleverly hidden among the ruins of several destroyed Neimoidian palaces. In fact, on first approach, there seems to be nothing of importance in the area. But on closer inspection, it becomes clear that the Hutt’s palace is cobbled together from former Neimoidian estates. The entrance to the palace is a pair of massive blast doors, 5 meters tall and carved with elaborate Hutt runes, set into the front wall. The doors appear to be unguarded.

Raden knocks and cowardly converses with a pair of red glowing eyes in a small window inset within the blast doors. After a stern warning to Raden about betraying Darga, the blast doors open and they are led through dimly lit hallways until here the soft sound of music and voices ahead.

Darga’s throne room is both opulent and repulsive. A thick layer of oddly scented smoke drifts through the air, rising out of braziers in the corners of the room. Once-beautiful tapestries line the walls, though most of them have been torn, burned, or stained to the point that they are almost unrecognizable. A raised dais in the center of the room supports the massive bulk of Darga the Hutt, and behind his dais a large, open balcony seems to extend into darkness.

After having Raden dragged away for betraying his confidence, he addresses the heroes directly. In obvious that he’s sizing them up and isn’t afraid of them. He eventually invites the heroes to stay at his court for a few days to decide if he’ll sell them the hyperdrive parts. While they offer the Corellian ale they have in trade, Darga chuckles and tells them that it won’t be enough. He then invites them to a lavish feast where he pointedly questions each of the heroes, especially in terms of what their strengths are.

The following morning, Darga holds court and tells the heroes that Raden has to pay for his betrayal, and he wants them to execute the turncoat for him. Quickly thinking, Tav offers the option of having Raden fight for his life in order to provide Darga and the court with his sport and enjoyment. Darga wholeheartedly approves of this idea and sends Raden back to his cell.

Throughout the encounter, Zaphod, Tav, and Dorn each notice Igren Demos, Darga’s majordomo, watching them suspiciously with his large, red eyes. As the encounter passes, they feel the Force within the Neimodian and the taint of the Dark Side around him.

Later that morning, the heroes are approached by TC-663, Darga’s translator droid. After asking to speak to them in private, he asks if he can get their help in decrypting a file he has found. During the course of the conversation, he inadvertently lets slip that he works for Switch. The heroes agree to help Sixty-Six also long as the droid owes them a favor in return. Galek uses telepathy to let his companions know that they must destroy TC and prevent anyone else from getting the file as he believe its the same file they got from Reme.

In the late afternoon, Darga calls his entire court to witness a gladiatorial combat. After a bit of friendly taunting, the heroes agree to participate in the games, with even considering using weapons set on stun.

Their opponents in the ring are: Warrick Raden by himself; the Karg Brothers, a trio of hulking Gamorean brothers wielding vibro-axes; and Zayda, a devious looking Rodian, with his grenade launcher toting battle droid companion, RX-7246.

The Karg Brothers

Zayda

RX-7246

Zaphod quickly comes up with a plan of attack. While Galek and Dorn go after Raden with an offer to fight alongside them to allow him to live, Zaphod and Tav go after the Rodian and battle droid. While the plan is well thought out and inspired, the Force is not with Zaphod, who comes with a hairs breath of death by a Karg Brother’s vibro-ax. If not for the careful shots of Tav, an excellent sharpshooter, the fight would have gone completely different. By the end of the brawl, Raden is skewered by a Karg Brother and the PCs are victorious.

Sitting in the cockpit of the Errant Twilight, Dorn Kol meditates as his shipmates busy themselves with various mundane tasks. As he calms himself and reaches out to galaxy and life surrounding him, his mind thinks back to the Jedi woman who had saved their lives. The Force answers, showing him the Togruta sitting in a ship of her own, full of health, and priming with hope.

As if in answer to Dorn vision, the Twilight suddenly lurches out of hyperspace with alarms blaring to life throughout the ship. Floating before them in the vastness of space is an Imperial Customs Corvette and Interdictor cruiser. Cutting through the alarms, the com comes to life:

“This is the Imperial Customs Corvette Assessor to unidentified freighter. By right of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Palpatine, you are ordered to stand down and prepared to be boarded and searched for contraband. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.”

With little time to figure out what to do, the crew makes themselves ready to board. Tav deftly hides all the contraband found in the ship within the smuggling compartments as Dorn advises Keth on proper Imperial procedure in these circumstances. Galak meanwhile heads to the hatch to great the Imperials.

Once attached to the Assessor, Lt. Peel and a squad of stormtroopers board the Twilight and conduct their search with Galak and Dorn by their side. Galak deftly belays any suspicions while Dorn keeps his eye on the Imperials to see if anything is out of the ordinary. The Force was with them, and Lt. Peel let them go without even a minor infraction or fine.

As the Twilight, limps out of the inderdictor’s gravity well the crew realizes the true cost their narrow escape—their primary hyperdrive has been damaged to the point where they’ll need replacement parts before Galak can attempt to repair it. Dorn searches the ship’s star charts to find that the only suitable, nearby planet they could possibly get parts from is Cato Neimoidia. Using the backup hyperdrive, the Twilight slowly makes into hyperspace and it new destination.

Cato Neimoidia is a shadow of its former once glorious past. Once a “purse world” of the Trade Federation, the planet has never recovered from the Clone Wars, and the city of Zarra still shows countless and obvious signs of devastation of one of the last battles of the war.

Landing at the nearly empty spaceport, Galak and Dorn each realize that they have seen this city in a recent Force vision. The heroes then realize that they have each shared a vision—Dorn, Zaphod, and Galak one vision and Vos, Keth, and Tav another.

The heroes take some time to search local databases and local rumor mills of any mentions of the red, tattooed Twi’lek woman but find no luck. Though Dorn is able to confirm that one of the last battles of the Clone Wars happened on Cato Neimoidia and pictures he found on the Holonet match those of his vision.

The spend the rest of the afternoon searching for how to get the needed hyperdrive parts for their ship. They visit Vigro’s Repulsorlifts to find that the only one that would have the parts is someone named Darga. Tav is unable to dig up any more information on Darga, but they pull their resources and drop a total of 1,000 credits in bribes to discover that its Darga the Hutt and though no one knows where his hideout is, a Devaronian by the name of Warrick Raden works for him from time to time.

Approaching Raden’s local haunt, a bombed out warehouse at the edge of town, the heroes are beset by Raden, a group of thugs, and two excavation droids. While the battle goes well in the beginning, the thugs quickly retreat into the building after Tav quickly drops two with two well placed shots from his new Longbarrel blaster rifle.

Blaster fire erupts within the Blue Deck Cargo Bay as the heroes storm into the room to support Korto Vos and Keth Secura. They make quick work of the stormtroopers, despite the appears for a repulser sled and more four more stormtroopers from inside a storage room.

As Zaphod watches the door, Dorn administers first aid to the unconscious Imperial officer before handcuffing her and placing her in the cargo bay’s control room. With a certain amount of glee, Galak strips off his combat suit and begins getting into the armor of a dead stormtrooper that had been shot in the head. Keth begins searching through the station’s computer banks to determine if any alarms had been sounded and if the way was clear to Red Deck’s Cargo Bay and their future ship. Tav searches the second storage room for the Cornelian Ale mentioned by Switch, while Korto cracks open the crate being hauled by the repulsor sled to find a yellow and white astromech droid with no power.

As they debate what to do with the droid and how to get it to the ship, the doors to the cargo bay open and six more stormtroopers fill in. Galak, having just finished securing his stormtrooper armor, without a helmet, blurts out “Glad you came, we need help securing these prisoners!” While its doubtful the ruse would have worked, Korto made the whole thing moot when he blasted the first two stormtroopers with the repulsor sled’s blaster.

As the heroes exchange blaster fire with the stormtroopers, a brown robed figured appears behind the Imperials, ignites two green bladed lightsabers and begins slaughtering the troopers. As she spins, slashes, and jumps in am impressive display of lightsaber skill, her hood falls off to reveal the female Togruta. Within seconds, the remaining stormtroopers are dead and she motions the heroes out of the cargo bay. “Quickly leave, more reinforcements are on the way. I’ll cover your retreat, just get off the station!"

Detatching the crate from the repulser sled, they heroes quickly take the word of this mysterious Jedi and make their way through the station. As they move through the hallways, Keth redirects some troop movements out of their way by slicing into the station’s computer, Korto sneaks them by a patrol guarding an intersection with a clever distraction, and Zaphod grabs Korto just before he rounds the corner and into a roaming patrol. At the turbolift, Dorn, sensing something grave was about to happen, grabs Keth’s hand just before the Twi’lek calls for a lift, and then motions for the turbolift adjacent to them. Regrettably the turbolift opens to a few confused Imperial citizens, but Tav quickly waves them off and herds them away from the roaming patrol he senses nearby. Finally, at the cargo bay, and their brand new ship, Galak runs into the opening boarding ramp and begins bypassing systems to initiate a cold start up of the engines.

In a bit of unbelievable luck and skill, they manage to blast away from Sel Zonn Station in the Errant Twilight. Without even checking the coordinates, they punch the hyperdrive as the clear Dac’s gravity well. A quick check of the Nav computer confirms they they are on a Coreward course to Corellia.

In the safety of hyperspace, the group tends to the wounds, explores the ship, and then flips the switch to turn on the mysterious droid they just saved. While at first confused by his surroundings, R3-M3, or Reme, as he likes to be called, tells the story how he was purchased by Mayam on Obroa-skai. From what he could tell, she was extremely worried for her life and on the run from someone, but he didn’t have much time to find out any more as shortly after purchasing him, she shot him off. The next thing he remembered was waking up to the heroes.

In a quest to determine what’s so special about Reme, Keth and Galak begin doing a thorough search of both his physical parts and his programing. It doesn’t take the two long before discovering a strange file sliced delicately and masterfully into the Reme’s personality matrix. While the file is retrievable, the risk to Reme’s personality is high. A failure of any kind would require a memory wipe and the possible loss of the file. With steady hands, the Force, and Galak’s help, Keth begins the delicate computer surgery to remove the file. While the procedure takes hours, he successfully, though just barely, manages to retrieve the file. Punching the file into Mayam’s datapad, they discover it to be encrypted so expertly that it would take a specific cypher to unlock its mysteries.

Without any more to go on, the heroes take the time to get to know each other. Galak shares his Imperial past on the planet Kashyyyk, and his escape from Imperial service, two facts that seem of great interest to Korto Vos. This prompts Dorn to use his farseeing ability on Korto Vos, prompting the Kel Dor to ask about Vos’s father. Vos doesn’t answer.

What a slippery slope we stand on...

After the sounds of blaster fire from outside the storage bay, a large, well-dressed Chevin burst into the room, a group of seven Nikto thugs filing in behind him. “So you thought you could hide your deal with the offworlders from me, droid? I’m tired of not getting my cut! Turn him into a scrap heap, boys!” he yelled before the Nikto opened fire into the room.

Galak returned the salvo of blaster fire with a powerful Force slam, knocking all but the Chevin to the ground. Disgruntled, the Chevin, whom the heroes would later find out was known as Ganga Lor, roared, “What am I paying you for, kill these fools!” Immediately, Switch’s four men and majordomo, Deel, turned their blasters on Switch and the heroes. While difficult, the battle was won when Ganga, foolishly refusing to surrender to Galak, was knocked unconscious.

Wisps of smoke drifting from the dead thugs’ blaster burns, Switch promptly thanked the heroes for their assistance and resumed their interrupted negotiations. The heroes, led by Vos and Galak, demanded that, in return for their assistance in dispatching Ganga Lor, that Switch hand over the package and provide them with a ship to get off the station. They would of course return his generosity by paying him a portion of the money they made in the future. Switch promptly refused to accept the deal, countering with offering to provide them the location of the package at no cost. His mind clouded with anger of the droid’s aloof, borderline insulting attitude, pulled out both of his pistols and blew two gaping holes in the droid. Switch’s eyes blinked incredulously once before fading to black, the crime boss then collapsed onto of his demolished astromech companion.

His dumbfounded companions stared at Vos as they tried to figure out what to do. Figuring Ganga Lor might have the information they were looking for, Keth went to work on patching the Chevin’s wounds and bringing him to consciousness. The heroes dragged the groggy, but awake, Ganga over to Switch’s desk and resumed their unrealistic and condescending demands with the surviving crime boss.

While thankful for not killing him, Ganga admitted he had no idea about any package the droid was hiding, he merely came here to get rid of a rival that had been a thorn in his side for months now and was eating away at his territory. The heroes, the term being used loosely at this point, demanded a ship in return for his life. Ganga admitted that he wanted them off his station, but he couldn’t give them what he didn’t have.

As his companions interrogated Ganga, Keth Secura began working on Switch’s computer in hopes of discovering more about the package. After almost locking himself out of the system, the Twi’lek was about the cypher the information he was looking for, Mayam’s package was hidden in the Blue Deck Main Docking Bay, along with a crate of Corellian ale Switch was smuggling. Blue Deck was the primary residence of the Imperial elite aboard Sel Zonn station, and a frequent shore leave destination for any Imperial stationed on Dac. Just as he was logging out of the system, Keth found references to Switch having dealings with another crime syndicate known as the Black Sun.

Finally, wanting nothing more than to be rid of his enemies-turned-savors-turned-ruffians, Ganga sliced into Switch’s system in search of a ship for them. He found the Errant Twilight, an old Corellion XS Stock Freighter that some Imperial officer had in storage in a Red Deck Docking Bay. The bay hadn’t been accessed in a a few weeks, and Switch appeared to have been eyeing it as he had the bay’s passcodes on file. Ganga refused to provide them with anything else, and the heroes, realizing they would get nothing more, let him leave, with the understanding that either they or Ganga Lor might contact the other for information or work.

Before leaving for Blue Deck, Vos attempts psychometry on Switch’s husk of a body, but is unable to gleam any information from the Force.

The heroes then depart the storage bay in two groups, the three humans in one and the non-humans in another, in hopes of being less conspicuous when the arrive in the anti-alien Blue Deck.

They make it to Blue Deck without incident to find the level like no other on the station. It is pristine, clean and plastered with pro-Palpatine posters. Taking a stock of the situation, the group notice a pathetic looking man with a mop of greasy blonde hair and a physique that is little more than skin hanging off bones and more importantly one who was on the Promenade just as Mayam appeared but ran as soon as the firefight broke out.

At the same time, Dorn noticed a late-20s, bearded Human male eyeing the same individual. He clearly carries himself as a military man, and walks as he belongs in the pro-Human, pro-Empire halls.

Led by Galak, the group approaches the greasy man and ask if he was following them. The man is obviously scared and wants nothing more than to get away from them. Galak convinces him to go wait at a nearby cantina until their return in a half-hour. The man quickly agrees and skirts off to the bar in question.

At that point, the bearded man approaches the group. Dorn, recognizing him from the Force vision that had sent him to Dac, opens with, “About time that you arrived.” The man, Zaphod, explains that he overheard them discussing the Main Hanger Bay and that he is also looking for something there. There is no doubt in any of their minds that they were meant to meet up like this.

The six reach the double doors of the docking bay without incident and prepare to enter. Vos and Keth enter the bay while the rest hide just to the sides of the door. After the doors close behind them, cutting them off from their allies, the two find three stormtroopers standing guard with an blonde, female Imperial officer in command.

“In the name of the Emperor, I command you to leave this bay at once,” the Imperial officer barks, looking sternly at Vos and Keth.

Vos continues walking forward, attempting to bluff his way into the Bay, “And I command you to let us pass.”

The above individuals are wanted in connection to the brutal shooting of an unidentified woman from an unknown species. If you have any information on the where abouts of these above individuals, contact the Sel Zonn Station Imperial Garrison.

Destiny awaits

The players arrive at Sel Zonn station above the planet Dac. Each hides their own agenda or secrets, yet all of them are there for no particular reason except to find adventure. As many are wont to do, they each made their way to Gundark’s Cantina. As if drawn to each other by the Force, a sentiment echoed by Dorn Kol, the five strangers began talking, looking for ways to make a few creds.

Eventually, out of the corner of their eyes, Dorn Kol and Keth Secura spotted two humans walking repeated by the cantina, each sporting poorly hidden hold-out blasters and talking quietly into comlinks. As Korto Vos, Keth Secura, and Tav Fey’lya stepped onto the Promenade to investigate, a blue-skinned, red-eyed severely injured woman stumbled into Vos, begging for help. As the group prepared to lend assistance, two stormtroopers arrived on the scene, demanding everyone lay down any weapons and hand the woman over.

One thing led to another and the Promenade erupted with gunfire. The battle quickly went south for the Empire and its informants when Galak Dresdon stepped out and hit the stormtroopers with a powerful Force blast, sending both stormtroopers into unconsciousness. The first informant went down next from a hail of blaster shots from Tav, just before two more stormtroopers arrived. It took the group more than a few shots, but their remaining foes fell to their concentrated fire with astute direction from Tav and Galak drawing all fire to him. Their foes defeated, the group grabbed some blasters and comlinks from their fallen foes and a datapad from the blue-skinned woman before hightailing it off the Promenade.

Taking refuge in a rundown hotel in one of the non-human areas of the station, they searched the woman’s datapad for clues, finding the words “V14" and “Switch.” Vos used psychometry on the datapad to discover a black protocol droid somehow connected to it, while Dorn used Vos’s description and farseeing to see the same droid and the woman talking about a mysterious object of some importance.

As Vos and Dorn used the Force to guide them, Keth and Tav hit the computer and streets respectively to dig up the following information. V14 was a storage bay deep in the station that was quarantined, but had frequent visits from various non-human species and was near the station’s primary exhaust systems. Rumor had it that the non-humans were operating some kind of criminal organization out of that section of the station. Try as the might, none of them could dig up any information on “Switch.”

Wary of both Imperial patrols and whatever lay within the quarantine zone, the circumstantial allies entered the decrepit bowels of the station, where every other light was burned out and blaster marks and carbon scoring marred the walls, ceilings, and floor. The entire area reeked of ozone and electrical fires with pools of coolant littering the hallways at regular intervals.

Rounding a corner, they saw two Gamorreans standing guard outside Storage Bay V14. With confidence bred through upbringing, Keth Secura sauntered upto the guards, waved his hand before them, reaching out to their minds in the Force. “My companions and I are allowed entrance,” he said. The Gamorreans squealed excitedly and vigorously shook their heads yes as they left the group pass.

Storage Bay V14 wasn’t quite what the companions expected. Like the hallways outside, the bay was dilapidated, yet sitting in the center of the bay was a large, finely crafted desk made of Japor ivory wood, which meant the desk was both priceless and rare. Sitting peacefully behind the desk was a protocol droid with shiny, ebony coverings that appeared to soak up light and offer only the slightest reflection. The droid’s eyes flickered slightly, as though imitating a person blinking rapidly. Standing just out of sight, four guards of various non-human species stood careful watch over the bay. A Twi’lek stood casually behind a large stake of crates, carefully watching the droid, and a red and white astromech droid beeped quietly to itself next to the protocol droid.

Vos walked up to the protocol droid, followed shortly by his companions, and asked if the droid knew of a blue-skinned, red-eyed woman. The droid, speaking in a High Galactic-Coruscant accent, replied. “Mayam? How is she doing?”

Keth stepped around the desk and addressed the Twi’lek as brother. The Twi’lek, Deel, scoffed at the attention and said he worked for Switch, motioning to the protocol droid.

Apparently, Switch, a local crime boss of the station, had dealings with Mayam and arranged to secure a package for her until the Imperials chasing her eased off. Upon learning of her death, Switch was unconcerned yet asked how he might help the five companions. A bit of gruff negotiations ensued and Switch offered to tell them the location of the Mayam’s package for 500 credits and an agreement that would each agreed to pass him information on a regular basis. They countered, or more aptly threatened, with the fact that he might want to divested himself of the package as it was clearly wanted by the Imperials, pay them a 500 credit fee for taking it off his hands, and provide them with transport off the station. Switch, once again unnervingly nonplussed by their innuendos, counted with them paying him 500 credits for the package and he would secure them safe passage off Sel Zonn station for the modest sum of 300 credits each.

Angered by the offer or perhaps trying to call the droid’s bluff, Vos stormed toward the exit. He got halfway to the door when blaster fire erupted outside…